Good morning, everyone.

I am Irving Wladawsky-Berger.

As General Manager of IBM's Internet Division, my overall responsibilities include IBM's electronic commerce strategy, and I am on the Board of Advisors to IBM's Institute for Advanced Commerce -- the sponsor of this event.

So on behalf of the Institute and IBM, I welcome you to this symposium.

The Institute for Advanced Commerce was established by IBM in January 1998. Broadly speaking, its objective is to accelerate the introduction of electronic commerce into the global economy.

Given that objective, it is not surprising that the Institute is acutely interested, not just in the technical issues, but the myriad social, structural and policy questions raised by our new-found ability to connect virtually everybody and everything.

Certainly the field of electronic commerce -- and of e-business in general -- is studded with enough issues to tax the minds and imaginations of management gurus and policy wonks on into the wee hours.

Why then -- in choosing from such a rich array of issues -- did we decide to single out privacy for the Institute's first public event?

Very simply, we are convinced that privacy is a defining issue for the future of the Internet, and how well the business community protects the privacy of personal information online will determine whether the Net and electronic commerce will achieve the success we all hope for.

Clearly, the Web has tremendous promise for business and all of society's other institutions.

We can already see them becoming more efficient, interacting with constituents in new, more immediate ways, and developing new processes, new products, new clients and new revenue streams.

With the rich volumes of information that the Web can make available, we can attend to our customers' and constituents' needs 24 hours a day, in the most knowledgeable way and with the most personalized service imaginable. Everyone in this room stands to benefit from this new way of doing business whether we are a bank, a manufacturer, a government agency, or an educational institution.

Perhaps more important, our customers and constituents stand to benefit as well.

With the Internet offering such demonstrable benefits to all, why does privacy arouse such deep concern among the public?

Perhaps it is because people are of two minds about technology in general.

During the postwar years an almost instinctive fear of technology run amok has worked its way into the popular culture.

You can see it in novels like George Orwell's "1984," or any number of movies like "Blade Runner," or the Batman films with their dark, impersonal, institutional mood.

Our culture has grown wary of technology's potential to control, subjugate, perhaps even destroy individuals.

Our attitude toward technology was not always so suspicious.

From the late 19th century through the early 20th century, a general, unmixed optimism held that technology would make life better and raise living standards all over the world.

World's fairs in London, Paris, Chicago, New York and other cities, all celebrated the wonders of technology and its ability to raise the human race to new heights.

The Internet has begun to resurrect that more positive view of technology.

Not the naive, uncritical acceptance of earlier years, but a view that nonetheless sees the Net as something different, something more personal . . . a source of individual empowerment.

Certainly, people can see the value of more efficient institutions.

But the public wants be sure that efficiency goes beyond merely getting the trains to run on time, and focuses on the only legitimate institutional objective . . . serving the people better and empowering them in their daily lives.

They realize that the Internet has tremendous potential for improving our lives, for helping to raise standards of living, and for "boldly going where no one has gone before."

What they don't want is institutions boldly going where they have no business going, or boldly using personal information to manipulate, control, and deprive people of their individuality.

People know that the real issue is power in the form of information. Power and who has it. Power and can they be trusted with it?

Not surprisingly, the more the public is inclined to distrust institutions with the power of information, the more it will be inclined to demand regulation.

The more information is regulated, the narrower will be the scope for creativity on the part of business, government and every other institution to fulfill their primary mission of service . . . service to their constituents, be they customers or citizens.

That's why concerns about privacy are so profoundly important, and why so much rides on resolving them.

The public must be assured that all this information ultimately empowers rather than exploits them, that all this efficiency and power is not for the sake of the institution, but for the benefit of the people.

They deserve that assurance, and last week's announcement by Vice President Gore of a set of privacy initiatives is a significant step in that direction.

But ask the average person how to assure personal privacy online and you would no doubt get a broad variety of approaches.

At one extreme, a pervasive regulatory regime could assure the public that nothing improper was happening to their personal information by making sure that nothing at all happened to their personal information . . . nothing bad and nothing good.

At the other poll, one might opt for a laissez-faire solution.

And that might suffice in a perfect world but, as the Founding Fathers knew, human nature is far from perfect, and so government has an important though limited role to play.

Somewhere between those two polls lies the answer . . . some balance between legitimate government action and the rewards and sanctions of the marketplace.

I suspect that, like me, you are inclined to find the balance much closer to the marketplace. After all, when you have a networked economy, customers can impose sanctions and punish a company much faster and more effectively than a government.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of companies working alone or in small groups, people remain wary of voluntary standards and that -- more than even the heaviest of regulatory hands -- will devastate electronic commerce.

After all, who would do business through a medium they don't trust?

Clearly, in this digital age, we in the business community need to act collectively as well as individually to establish ourselves as worthy stewards of privacy.

We must work together to create what Ira Magaziner has called a "safe zone" on the Internet.

The concept is simple. A "safe zone" consists of companies committed to preserving the privacy of personal data on the Net.

The bigger the safe zone and the more companies it includes, the greater the chance of convincing the public at large that voluntary efforts work.

With our collective voice, we will be telling consumers loud and clear that, when it comes to their personal information, we are behaving responsibly . . . establishing, promulgating, and -- most important -- enforcing online privacy policies.

Clearly, no company here would intentionally violate a person's privacy, and I am sure we would all be vigilant in preventing a mistaken disclosure.

But in this new global electronic environment, we must all act -- and most important be seen to act -- with a passionate respect for our customers' privacy.

That is one reason we have called together this symposium.

As you can tell from the agenda, we have a full program with representatives from virtually every constituency affected by electronic commerce, and are prepared to examine the issue of privacy in all its aspects.

We have brought together representatives of businesses that are heavily involved in using and protecting information:

• Business leaders who deal with the issue every day,
• Members of the university community and others who have been observing the growth of electronic commerce,
• Government officials charged with protecting the interests of consumers,
• Some of our own experts on security, and
• A prominent member of the Administration who is very deeply involved in all the emerging issues of e-business in general.

Our hope is that you will leave here fully acquainted with all that is being done, all that needs to be done, and how that can all be accomplished.

IBM -- like you -- wants to see electronic commerce reach its full potential with all that means for your company and mine, for our economy and for our society in general.

But it is clear that our success in establishing electronic commerce will be in direct proportion to the people's trust in our commitment to respect their privacy.

It will never be easier to establish that trust than now, while electronic commerce and attitudes toward it are in their infancy. This symposium is a start toward building that trust, and your participation in it is a tribute to your vision and that of your institution.